Scorched Hot Potato

Who knows what outcomes that Kerry has in mind as he deals with the political hot-potato of oil. Jeffrey St.Clair argues that the wheeling-dealing shows duplicity on Kerry's behalf, as well as on the legacy Clintonian Democrats. However, if Kerry understands the realistic oil depletion issues to any degree (something that St.Clair does not acknowledge at all -- see below), then he should know that any hand-shake deals made have virtually no value under a looming dragged out crisis.

And a quote that shows the absurdity:

St.Clair quoting Clinton's Hayes:“Estimates of recoverable gas reserves on public lands from this basin alone are as high as 9 trillion cubic feet. If maximum operating capacity of the current pipelines in the Powder River Basin is achieved, production could be as much as 1 billion cubic feet per day. That will produce enough fuel to heat nearly fifty thousand homes in the United States for twenty years. Industry is producing the gas and submitting applications for permits to drill at an unprecedented rate and, presently, there are more than 4,000 coal bed methane wells in the basin. Upon completion of further environmental analysis, we expect to nearly double that amount.” from One for Oil and Oil for One, The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil

50,000 homes for twenty years; make that 1 million homes for one year. Big deal.

If Kerry believes any of this stuff, other than for short-term political capital, it won't last for long if he gets elected. No doubt he will start to rethink the handshake agreements, if has not already premeditatively voided them. Watch Robert Kennedy, Jr. and other enviros for direction.

Otherwise, the article makes interesting reading. The parts on Hazel O'Leary, a former Minnesota Northern States Power executive stirred the braincells on how an ego-stroked, pure bureaucratic empty suit thinks:

The French, to me, are different. They are odd. They probably think we are odd. The French, I believe, benefited from what most students of this industry would quickly come to--the standardized standard design of a nuclear reactor.

Directly from the Department of Redundancy Department.